Penguin Random House wants to merge with Simon & Schuster. Such an action would bring together two of the biggest players in the publishing world. Penguin Random House alone owns 300 imprints worldwide and releases 15,000 titles a year. Often, Penguin and Simon & Schuster are the two remaining contenders in bidding wars for high-profile books which pay authors large advances.
The Biden administration is contesting this proposed merger, on the grounds that reduced competition would flatten the amount paid to the workers in this industry – namely the writers themselves, the ones who are responsible for creating the product upon which these companies’ revenue streams rest.
I usually use this forum to discuss strategies for improving upon the creative endeavor. I try to be both aspirational and practical in my insights. This posting falls into the practical camp. Artists need a rich ecosystem of creative distribution. There must be a free flow of ideas contained within the pages of a book. A bottleneck at the top not only reduces pay for those artists, but also places a stranglehold on the ideas promoted in those manuscripts. With less competition, the breadth of ideas in the marketplace diminishes.
The publishing industry has already seen tremendous tumult over the past several years. Alternate avenues of access to the marketplace of ideas have already been compromised. Independent presses have been shuttered. Self-publishing, in which the writers themselves assume responsibility for the promotion of their works, has been on the ascendent. While self-publishing offers some new-found access to the marketplace, writers are by no means the most skilled in marketing their wares.
We need a vital and robust publishing industry. Writers need to lean upon the expertise of publishers to market their wares. At their best, publishers offer insight into the market of books. They can be strong advocates for new and independent voices. Let’s keep this essential component of the artistic trade effective for the workers themselves. This teamwork will provide a mutually beneficial arena in which the best of ideas come to the fore of the book-buying realm.
